Wolf Protector's Secret Baby

by Scarlett Ray

  “You’ll get used to it again,” Luke said as he took a drink. Then he looked me up and down critically. “I guess since you’re here alone, you didn’t meet anyone out there.” My smile disappeared all at once.

  “No,” I said flatly. He asked like it was such a simple thing to just go out and find your mate. He and Camilla had found each other when he was twenty-two, and they’d been happily together ever since. There I was, thirty-one, still with no idea who I was meant to be with.

  Well. My wolf argued against that. He insisted he knew, we both already knew, who my mate was, and I was just refusing to act on it. As if Luke had heard it too, he asked casually, “You seen Dani yet?”

  I took a long swig of my beer before answering. “For a minute at work. Yeah. I’m, uh, I’m actually supposed to be having dinner with her tonight,” I admitted, bracing myself for his anger. But this time, it was the quiet kind.

  “Huh. Here I thought you’d be having dinner with us,” His tone was casual, but I could practically feel the irritation coming off him in waves.

  “I didn’t realize that was part of the invitation.”

  He scoffed, “Yeah, you definitely have some settling in to do.” Another few seconds passed in silence, both of us drinking to avoid talking, before he finally said what I was expecting. “You know it can’t be her, Noah.”

  “I know.” We’d had this conversation a million times already, and even though I knew everything he was going to tell me, it didn’t change how I felt. Part of the reason I’d chosen a college so far away was in the hopes that distance from her would force me to move on. I’d met a few shifter girls in Minnesota who were willing to overlook the fact that I was from a southwest pack—instead of northern like them—but my wolf never howled for any of them the way he did for Dani.

  “She’s human,” Luke reminded me.”

  “I know.”

  “And we can’t be with humans because…?”

  “Because if they find out what we are, they’ll throw us in zoos or try to dissect us,” I was repeating everything I had been taught as a child, the reason our shifting had to be kept an absolute secret from anyone who wasn’t one of us. “And for some reason you think Dani would turn on us like that.”

  “I think it’s a risk we can’t take,” Luke agreed. “You know it too, deep down. You might care about her—hell, you might even love her. But she’s still not the one.”

  “Yeah.” All things I’d heard before, either from him or from his parents, the leaders of our pack. And hearing it again wasn’t improving my mood. I took another healthy drink. “I get it, okay? I’m not trying to make anything happen between us. Am I at least allowed to be her friend?”

  “If you can leave it at that, I guess.”

  “Great. Then can we talk about something else?”

  Even though he probably wanted to lecture me some more, he must have seen how much the conversation was bothering me. “Sure.”

  “Do you know who Nicky is?” I asked, looking up at him. His eyes went wide for a second, and then he looked away with a badly-hidden smile, amused for some reason I didn’t understand.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “But you’re not gonna tell me?”

  “You’re having dinner at Dani’s place tonight? I’m sure you’ll get to meet him.”

  Chapter Three: Dani

  I was still a little distracted when I got back to the Visitor Center, absentmindedly doffing my hat and wandering slowly into my office. Maggie noticed when I got in and came to meet me. “I’d say that was closer to two hours,” she clucked, arms crossed, but she must’ve seen how lost I was. “Something wrong?”

  “Did you know Noah was coming back?” I asked, looking up at her accusingly. She knew more about staffing and such than I did, at least.

  “Noah Wright? I knew he was coming back sometime, but—are you saying he’s here? You saw him out there?” Her blue eyes lit up with delight as I nodded. “Well, isn’t that nice? Was he out looking for you? I can’t think why else he’d be wandering the preserve.”

  “He’s working here. As a ranger,” I was still having a hard time accepting it myself. “You really didn’t know?”

  “Sugar, if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to keep quiet about it. I don’t know why you’re not more excited! This could mean a lot of good for you. And Nicky.”

  “Maybe.” It would definitely mean something for us. But exactly what was hard to tell. Frowning, getting lost in all the different possibilities, I sat down at my desk and chewed my lip.

  “Dani. You are going to tell him, aren’t you?” Maggie asked, shutting the door so we could talk in private. It was sort of a sensitive subject, after all. “You know you have to. It’s only fair.”

  “I don’t have to do anything,” I grumbled back at her, getting defensive by reflex when I was on such unfamiliar ground. “We’ve gotten along just fine without him for years. Why should we have to change anything now?”

  “Because Nicky is his son too,” she scolded, “and he deserves to know it. Even you can’t be stubborn enough to deny that.”

  No, I couldn’t. Of course I knew deep down that I had to tell Noah he was the father of my son. There was no question about it. But I also knew that telling him would make everything a hell of a lot more complicated between us, and thinking about that was intimidating.

  “I’m going to tell him. I just have to figure out how,” I told Maggie, trying to tone down my prickly attitude since I knew she was right. “Noah’s supposed to come over for dinner tonight. He can meet Nicky, and afterwards I’ll tell him everything.”

  “Good. And now that he’s back home for good, maybe y’all two can finally settle down like you should have years ago.” She left my office with a knowing grin, and I shook my head at her. Maggie had been trying to push me and Noah together for as long as I could remember, so it was no surprise that she was still at it. She had never approved of me keeping Nicky a secret from him, but I had my reasons.

  It was a complete accident, after all. Even the sex itself wasn’t planned. A couple weeks before he left, Noah had asked to talk to me alone, told me he had some news and didn’t want me hearing it from anyone else. He met me at my place, just up the road from my parents’, and told me about his plans to leave. How he was going off to get his degree—not very common in a town full of ranchers—and wouldn’t be back for a while. “Years, probably,” he said. And he felt like I should know.

  I was sort of in shock at first. Noah and I had seen each other nearly every single day for years. I’d gotten used to working by his side, having races from the fields back to the house, having him over for dinner with my parents a couple nights every week. The thought of all that being taken from me at once was hard to even comprehend. And I probably would’ve flipped my lid completely if he hadn’t kissed me. That threw me off even more.

  The kiss was quick, short, over as soon as it started. He didn’t explain at all. Didn’t warn me first or apologize after. In fact, he seemed just as surprised as I was. His eyes stayed fixed on mine for a second, and he frowned like he was fighting with himself. After a few seconds’ hesitation, he kissed me again, a little softer, a little longer, sweet enough to light a fire in my chest. I grabbed a handful of his shirt to keep him from pulling away, licked his lips—and he broke. His arms wrapped tight around my waist, crushing my body against his, and he kissed me roughly, deeply, until I was standing on my toes to meet him.

  I couldn’t deny I’d thought about this before. When I caught myself watching him work or I noticed the way his hips moved while he was riding. Or, when he caught my eye across the table at dinner and grinned at me. I’d thought about what it might be like to have those powerful hands all over me, to feel exactly how well his hips could move. But I figured he wasn’t interested. We were just friends, and he’d never tried anything. Until that night.

  It happened right there against the kitchen wall, Noah pushing my shirt up to get his hands under it, the
n stripping my jeans so he could lift my leg and wrap it around his hip. He did ask before he went all the way, made sure I wanted it and he wasn’t pushing me. I managed to get out a breathless, desperate, “Yes!” And then another. And another. My fingers grasped at his hair. He left bite marks all over my neck and shoulders; I had to wear my hair down for the next week. It shocked me a little how good it felt to be with him. Not just sexually good but…natural. It felt right, somehow. He started to ask if he should pull out, and I told him if he stopped, I’d break his jaw. He didn’t argue.

  And he had been gone for weeks by the time I realized I was pregnant. Dad was…not happy. He told me I should tell Noah what had happened, that he needed to come back and “take responsibility.” But it was no more his fault than it was mine. And he had plans, his degree, things he would have to drop completely if he had to come back and help me raise a kid. Besides, it was just a fling, just one time; it wasn’t like he was in love with me. No point forcing him to marry me over it. And I could do this on my own, couldn’t I? I’d have Mom and Maggie to help, even if Dad refused—which he didn’t. Once Nicky was born, Dad loved him and did everything he could to help take care of him.

  I’ll admit it was a little scary at first. I had some complications during the pregnancy for reasons no doctor could really seem to explain, bad enough that I needed a hysterectomy right after Nicky was born. Everyone was real apologetic while they were telling me I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant again, but he was all I cared about. He was safe and healthy and beautiful, and as soon as I laid eyes on him, he was my everything.

  Despite all my first-time-parent screw-ups, even now that I was raising him alone, my boy still managed to be the happiest, sweetest, most optimistic child I’d ever met. Anyone would be lucky to have him in their life. And Maggie was right: Noah deserved that chance.

  * * *

  After forcing myself through a few more hours of work, even more impatient and antsy now, I finally got to head out for the highlight of my day. The drive from the preserve into town was a good forty minutes, but I liked the familiarity of the route. First the untouched forest around the preserve, then a handful of ranches and farms I knew by name, people my parents had always done business with. I knew the town itself like the back of my hand as well.

  Palo Verde was a small town, home to only about 20,000 people. But it was just that: home. The people living there were practical, hardworking, not interested in making the town famous or “putting us on the map.” It was a quiet place made up of family-owned businesses and neighbors always willing to help their neighbors.

  For example, the woman running the daycare center where I dropped Nicky off every weekday morning used to babysit—me—for my parents when I was little. The daycare itself had only been around for the past three years or so, but it was a lot easier than trying to find a sitter every day, so it had been doing well. When I got there, the kids were all playing in the fenced back yard, completely immune to the summer heat, and Nicky was no exception. But when he saw me get out of my truck and head up to the yard, he immediately dropped whatever game he had going and ran to meet me at the gate.

  “Mama!” he called, practically jumping into my arms, and I laughed as I swung him up onto my hip.

  “Hey, baby,” I planted a kiss on his cheek and pushed his thick black hair away from his eyes. The same loose black curls that haloed Noah’s head, I noticed, after seeing him again; it was hard to miss how much Nicky resembled him. Brushing that thought away, I instead asked him, “Did you have fun today?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I made this,” he stuck his hand up in front of my face, showing he was wearing a little bracelet made out of string and wooden alphabet beads.

  “You did?” I took his wrist to look closer at the bracelet. “What does it say?”

  “It doesn’t say anything. It can’t talk,” he teased with a wide grin.

  “Okay, smart aleck,” I agreed, tickling him briefly as punishment. “What does it spell?”

  “It spells Nicky!” he squealed, squirming in my arms. The daycare’s owner, Miss Kelly, came over to the gate to greet me with a smile.

  “Have you two been working on your letters at home?” she asked. “A lot of kids can’t spell their whole first and last name yet, but Nicky’s got his down. And ‘Vasquez’ isn’t an easy one to sound out.”

  “Neither is ‘Nicholas.’ But we’ve been practicing some.” A lot of that “practice” was him watching rodeos and livestock shows with the captions turned on, but I figured if it was helping him get ahead, there was no sense knocking it. “We have some errands to run, so we should probably get going. Was there anything else?”

  “No, he was great, as usual,” Miss Kelly said, gently ruffling Nicky’s hair. “I’m going to miss him when he heads off to pre-k next month. But I’m sure he’ll do great there too.”

  Nicky gave her and his friends an enthusiastic wave with both hands, nearly wriggling out of my arms as I carried him back to the truck. I helped him into his booster seat and tried to buckle him in, but he insisted on doing it himself. As I got into my seat up front, I told him, “We’re having company for dinner tonight.”

  “Who?” he asked. “Is it Jacob? Is it Miguel?”

  “No, not one of the ranch hands. He’s a friend of mine from years ago, back when you were still in the stars. His name is Noah. I think you’re gonna like him.”

  “Okay! What are we making?”

  “Why don’t you pick?” I glanced at him in the rearview mirror as I headed toward the grocery store. “What do you want to make?”

  Nicky’s little face screwed up as he considered, “I want corn fritters.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. Should’ve guessed that. “Boy, you keep eating so many corn fritters and you’re gonna turn into one.”

  “You said I could pick,” he reminded me with a frown.

  “Hey, no pouting. I didn’t say no, did I?”

  As always, Nicky was raring to help any way he could. He walked—and hopped and skipped and scampered—through the grocery store with me, grabbing up the things we needed and presenting them to me as if they were hidden treasures. When we got back to the house, he helped me put everything away. After living there for the past six months or so, we’d pretty much gotten used to staying in my parents’ house. Another thing I’d inherited and was trying my best to keep up with. At least I had some experience when it came to ranch work; I was a lot more comfortable there than at the office.

  I took Nicky out to the stables where Miguel was just getting in from the fields, and Nicky helped him feed the horses while he gave me a rundown of the day. Miguel was one of Noah’s many cousins and just about as good a ranch hand—though not quite as nice to look at, if I’m honest. Not that his looks mattered; I wasn’t exactly in the market for a man any time soon. The only likely exception would be if Noah wanted…well, we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

  Since it was getting late and we still had a dinner to cook, I sent Miguel home and brought Nicky in to start getting things ready. While he was mashing corn for me, I was baking chicken thighs and measuring flour, slowly adding more and more ingredients to the bowl for Nicky to mix. Before we could start doing any frying, the doorbell rang, so I told Nicky to stay where he was, at the counter, away from the hot oil on the stove, and I went to greet our company.

  Noah’s face split into a grin when I opened the door. He’d changed out of his uniform and into jeans and a blue plaid button-down. His top few buttons were undone, his sleeves rolled up, so he looked a lot more casual than earlier, a lot more like the Noah I knew. “Come on in,” I said, stepping out of the doorway. “You’re just in time.”

  “I didn’t know if I should bring anything,” he seemed a little apologetic for coming in empty-handed.

  “Just yourself,” I assured him with a smile. As I led him to the kitchen, he followed like he knew the house’s layout. He probably still did.

  “So, who—” he stopped
short when we reached the kitchen and found Nicky still hard at work, probably over-mixing our dinner a little.

  “Hey, I think that’s enough,” I laughed as I took the bowl from him. I had to bite back another snort of laughter when I saw the wide-eyed shock on Noah’s face. “Nicky, this is my friend Noah I was telling you about. Noah, my son, Nicky.”

  Chapter Four: Noah

  “Hi!” the kid on the other side of the counter greeted me with a toothy smile. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

  “Uh.” Shit, get it together. “Yeah, you too, bud.” So this was why Luke laughed at me when I brought Nicky up. It definitely wasn’t at all what I was expecting. When the hell did this happen? It seemed like it was just her and him, so his dad must not have been around.

  Come to think of it… He had Dani’s warm eyes and round features, but his hair was black and a lot thicker than hers. But that didn’t mean anything, did it? Her dad had black hair. The kid could’ve gotten it from him. There was no definitive proof here that he was—

  “Noah?” Dani cleared her throat for my attention, and I must have jumped a little. “Calm down, I’m not making you do any cooking. Go stand with Nicky, okay? Don’t want you boys getting burnt.”

  “Oh, but it’s fine if you do?” I asked, although I didn’t argue about standing back. She had always been a better cook than me, so I was sure that trying to help would just make things worse.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, waving me off as she scooped a portion of batter into the hot oil on the stove and it immediately started bubbling.

  “So, what are we having?” I asked, leaning against the counter and trying to be discreet about observing Nicky. He didn’t seem to notice me watching him at all.